I first published this list in 2020 when AU went virtual and everyone was asking where all the past AU locations had been. With AU 2026 returning to The Venetian in Las Vegas this September, it was time for an update. This list covers the main US event and does not include the international AUs like Japan, China, and Brasil.
Before 1993 these were CAD Camps for resellers and partners. Then Autodesk University was born.
- 1993 San Francisco, California – Actually San Rafael in Marin County near Autodesk HQ. The first Autodesk University!
- 1994 Atlanta, Georgia
- 1995 San Francisco, California – Moscone Center
- 1996 Chicago, Illinois
- 1997 Los Angeles, California
- 1998 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
- 1999 – the year of 4 AUs
- Boston, Massachusetts
- Dallas, Texas
- Chicago, Illinois
- San Francisco, California
- 2000 Las Vegas, Nevada – MGM Grand
- 2001 Las Vegas, Nevada – MGM Grand
- 2002 Las Vegas, Nevada – MGM Grand
- 2003 Las Vegas, Nevada – MGM Grand
- 2004 Las Vegas, Nevada – MGM Grand
- 2005 Orlando, Florida – Walt Disney World
- 2006 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2007 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2008 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2009 Las Vegas, Nevada – Mandalay Bay
- 2010 Las Vegas, Nevada – Mandalay Bay
- 2011 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2012 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2013 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2014 Las Vegas, Nevada – Mandalay Bay
- 2015 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2016 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2017 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2018 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2019 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian
- 2020 Virtual AU – Free and online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Over 100,000 attendees, the largest AU ever by headcount.
- 2021 Virtual AU – Online again as the world worked its way back to in-person events.
- 2022 New Orleans, Louisiana – Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. The return to in-person AU, and the first time in a new city since 2005.
- 2023 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian. Back home, with Formula 1 tearing up the Strip right after we left.
- 2024 San Diego, California – San Diego Convention Center
- 2025 Nashville, Tennessee – Music City Center. Hot chicken, honky-tonks, and a closing party with Train.
- 2026 Las Vegas, Nevada – The Venetian, September 15-17. Back to the venue attendees keep voting for with their feet.
A few patterns jump out from the list. The Venetian has hosted AU more than any other venue, 12 times counting 2026. Las Vegas has hosted the majority of the event years. And the experiment with rotating cities (New Orleans, San Diego, Nashville) always seems to end the same way: back to Vegas.
The International AUs
The list above is the flagship US event. What most people forget is how big AU got internationally. For a stretch of years there were more AU events outside the US than inside it. In 2014, over 16,000 people attended AU events worldwide and more than half of them were at events outside the US. At the peak there were 13 AU events in a single year spread across the globe.
I attended several of these myself: one each in Japan, China, and Brasil. Getting a clean year-by-year list of every international AU is tough because the program grew fast and shifted cities often, but here is what I can confirm:
- 2008 – The first international AUs. Shanghai, China, followed by Tokyo, Japan.
- 2010 – Tokyo and Beijing ran alongside Las Vegas, drawing nearly 30,000 people across all AU events from 72+ countries.
- 2011 – AU Brasil launched in Sao Paulo at Expo Center Norte on September 21.
- 2012 – AU Brasil returned to Sao Paulo at the Sheraton WTC on October 9. Autodesk’s 30th anniversary year.
- 2013 – Five international conferences plus Las Vegas.
- 2014 – AU Germany in Darmstadt, AU Brasil, and others. 16,000+ worldwide attendees.
- 2015 – 13 events worldwide. Kicked off in Johannesburg, South Africa, then Mumbai, India on August 7 (the first international AU to host the AU Gallery), and on through the year.
AU also ran in London, and recurring regional events in Germany (Darmstadt), India, and Brasil (six editions total) over these years.
If you attended an international AU I missed here, tell me the city and year in the comments and I will add it. My own records only go so far, and the AU community remembers more than any one person can.
As for me: I have attended 33 AUs so far, and AU 2026 at The Venetian will be my 34th. That count includes every US AU from my first in 1998 through 2023, all four separate 1999 city events, both virtual years in 2020 and 2021 where I presented, Nashville in 2025, and the international AUs in Japan, China, and Brasil.
How many of these AUs have you been to? Drop your count in the comments.
A lot of older AU photos and AU shutterbug photos are here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/btl/albums
Cheers,
Shaan
